ramayana · Day 174 · Week 25
The Sandals on the Throne
A mother holds a space inside her body for someone who has not yet arrived. Bharata's quiet keeping-of-the-seat is the same noble waiting — full of love, full of trust, full of unseen work.
True devotion is not loud. It is the small, steady choice to keep the seat warm for someone you love.
In the city of Ayodhya, in a great hall where the throne stood gold and empty, three women wept softly.
Rama, the beloved eldest prince, had walked into the forest the night before. He had gone willingly, in the simple cloth of a hermit, his wife Sita and brother Lakshmana beside him. He had gone because of a promise his father had been bound to keep.